WTN: 2000 Daniel Rion Clos Vougeot

2000 Daniel Rion Clos Vougeot 13.5%
Second of two bottles, and much better than the first, drunk a few months ago. Darker than usual with some bricking and haziness. First aromas are dishrag and cherry, seconded by camphor and leather. Luscious mouthfeel, with very pleasurable tingling acidity matched by just the right amount of sweetness from the very elegant fruit. Tastes mature and at its peak, though probably good for a couple more years. Another bottleful of that kind of yummy serious pleasure that justifies this whole wine calvary.

[Jenise]

I've had the pleasure of several Daniel Rion Clos Voueots of various vintages in the past, most of which would only have been barely drinkable at just eight years of age, but nonetheless, they have always been pretty much as you say. "Life affirming" might not be out of place here.

2000 Daniel Rion Clos Vougeot 13.5%
Second of two bottles, and much better than the first, drunk a few months ago. Darker than usual with some bricking and haziness. First aromas are dishrag and cherry, seconded by camphor and leather. Luscious mouthfeel, with very pleasurable tingling acidity matched by just the right amount of sweetness from the very elegant fruit. Tastes mature and at its peak, though probably good for a couple more years. Another bottleful of that kind of yummy serious pleasure that justifies this whole wine calvary.

Oswaldo-

Dishrag and camphor are not aromas I usually find enjoyable in my wine. I assume from the remainder of your note, that you were able to find harmony with this bottle.

Bill

most of which would only have been barely drinkable at just eight years of age

It's strange, Burghound gave it a window of 2009-17 in 2003, yet last night it seemed too delicate, the tannins too faded, and the vintage is not one of the more long lived...

Dishrag and camphor are not aromas I usually find enjoyable in my wine. I assume from the remainder of your note, that you were able to find harmony with this bottle.

Yes, I did enjoy it greatly. Maybe mustiness or moldiness, though a little different, would describe that smell a little less unattractively than dishrag. It dissipated quickly and wasn't offputting, perhaps because positively associated with age. The camphor, on the other hand, has a childhood association of vicks vaporub, negative because medicinal but, at the same time, positive, because it connotes being taken cared for (by mom? ). As so often happens with wine, what is unpleasant by itself or in other spheres can be part of some mysteriously attractive balance of opposites.

[Jenise]

I never found camphor in any Rions, but most Rions I've had did have a stronger element of funk than one expects from Burgundies and which I found attractive in a male sweat kind of way, if it's not too weird to admit that.

which I found attractive in a male sweat kind of way, if it's not too weird to admit that.

Ha, the truth comes out! No, I dig it, though I'd have to change the gender of the sweat.

[Jenise]

Ha, the truth comes out! No, I dig it, though I'd have to change the gender of the sweat.

What the Rions have is very similar to the animale element in Chave's great Hermitages, don't you think?

What the Rions have is very similar to the animale element in Chave's great Hermitages, don't you think?

I will wholeheartedly agree as soon as I taste a Chave Hermitage , perhaps during a trip to the region sometime this year.

What the Rions have is very similar to the animale element in Chave's great Hermitages, don't you think?

I will wholeheartedly agree as soon as I taste a Chave Hermitage , perhaps during a trip to the region sometime this year.

Are you folks talking about brett?